There is a lot of mixed opinion about what makes a person succeed. If you’ve read Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris you probably felt overwhelmed, like me, when reading that successful people all wake up at 4am, dive into an ice bath, practise yoga, drink an acai and goji berry smoothie, run 10kms, meditate for an hour and read three books before starting work at 6am. In reality however, nothing could be further from the truth for most of us. I certainly don’t know anyone who lives like this, and if I did I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with them anyway.
An average day for me starts around 5:30am, when I begrudgingly drag myself out of bed for a date with my running coach. I am a reluctant athlete. I don’t always enjoy training, but I set myself a goal so terrifying that I can’t avoid training for fear of death or failure. I think I could run a marathon with marginal effort which in turn means being tempted to skip training so instead, I find the toughest races on the planet and sign up.
In 2019, I completed the Grand to Grand Ultra, an ultra course that covers 275kms, spread over six stages in seven days. With desert, forest and rock terrain, it starts at a remote location on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was incredibly fulfilling to finish and a great personal achievement. So much so that I’ve signed up for the Tors des Geants in September of this year, a 330kms endurance trail that needs to be completed within 150 hours. I relish the kind of discipline needed to train for these events, it’s great for the mind as well as the body.
But I am not always like this, it’s about mental bandwidth for me and for two years I did very little running and focused purely on building my startup, Procurified. I found I could not pull myself away from building the product and finding solutions to the problems that would arise. In an ideal world, having balance is the goal but there is also a time and place for everything. I couldn’t always bring myself to put on my running shoes and step out the door. I think we have all been there. I kept promising myself that I would start running again once we hit big milestones, but those deadlines passed and I began to question the ridiculous work-related timelines I had set myself that were preventing me from exercising.
The irony is that the best experience of my life was the 85km sandy long stage, carrying 10kgs on my back and running for 16 hours. The highs, lows and beauty of the natural surroundings caused a release of many chemicals in my brain and those memories still give me goosebumps now. That night I finished the stage in fourth place, ahead of six elite runners and moved into ninth place overall.
The conflict of wanting to put all of my energy into work, but the desire to give attention and time to the people and other elements in life that are important to me, is sometimes exhausting. I feel most relaxed when trail running, concentrating on the rocky trails ahead of me rather than the ‘to-do’ list. It’s important to have goals outside of work and personally, it gives me the drive and motivation to train.
I started building my product in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. Keen to get some help with outbound sales, I advertised a couple of roles. The ad read ‘no salary but the chance of adventure’ in the hope someone would see the potential I could. Two people joined, one of which is Marc, who is a co-founder of the business with me. We’ve built a robust product that allows construction companies to streamline their product sourcing and we’ve secured strategic angel investors and closed $100k of investment.
At work, I am here to serve my team first, then my clients. My dad taught me a simple philosophy…. only ask people to do something that you would do or have done yourself. Daily catch-ups and weekly strategy sessions are integral to keeping energy flowing. Remote working is great for personal productivity, but brainstorming in person is so different when you can feel each other’s energy, read each other’s body language and share ideas together. As a team we spend so much time together that I like to try and understand how everyone thinks so I can help them if required, and identify if or when they are overwhelmed.
By 9am, I’m normally engrossed in a strategy meeting with the team. Last week, 30 minutes into the meeting a potential investor called me requesting additional information. Pitching for funding is obviously an essential part of my role and so I typically try to be as responsive as possible. I think it’s very easy to get swept up in ‘ego metrics’ and the desire to raise. Had we raised two years ago, it would have been wasted. A simple question I ask myself is would I invest my last figurative $100k into my business? If the answer is no, then what do I need to do to make that a yes. If yes already then great, go get investors.
When we recently secured $100k from local construction industry heavyweights, the timing was right. Our product is solid and our customers believe in the product we have built for them so we feel great about what we are doing. I can’t deny that I got caught up in the raise, raise, raise hype. Now however, we are taking our time to be an undeniable leader of our sector and raise on our terms.
Yesterday I was having a coffee with Marc, my co-founder, when we got a call from a customer. He had just loaded a new project into the platform and it’s now over to us. First, we needed to onboard 20 new suppliers and then talk them through processes in order to respond to the project request. It’s very hands on and critical to making our customers happy, so the whole team dropped everything and we cracked on. This is just one example of how fluid we need to be as a team. It doesn’t matter what I have planned for my day, it’s almost guaranteed it won’t work out the way I think it will. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s actually the opposite. It’s exciting to watch how the business is evolving and to witness the challenges and successes along the way.
Being the founder of a startup is what I wanted, but with it comes responsibility, a certain degree of pressure and the inability to ever truly switch off. I believe that absolute balance is nonsense. I think you can have three focuses in your life and it’s up to you which you pick. Any more than that and you spread yourself too thin so I cut out everything else entirely. For me, it’s my business, family and training. I wouldn’t be able to do what I love without the support of my girlfriend Gemma, my parents, friends and my pugs Harold and Arthur. Yes that’s right, pugs. Animals are incredible stress absorbers, unconditional love-givers and compassion teachers.
I am always in a mental battle with my inner self, desiring comfort but pushing myself where the discomfort lies. I create rules for myself that I try to stick to and I don’t like to compromise on them. I like to push to prove to myself that I can do it. And I believe that anyone can be successful if they push themselves and believe that there are no boundaries that can’t be pulled down. I don’t buy into ‘what success looks like’ fads and you don’t have to either. Ice baths, smoothies and meditation may be beneficial, but there is a time and a place for everything, and that’s not at 4am. If you’re up at 7am and motivated to succeed, you’re probably already smashing life. Just challenge yourself, bring something new to your day and be kind.
Rupert Tait is the founder of Procurified
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